Introduction to Gestalt Theory and Practice

Next Intro:

Saturday May 11, 2024
1:00-4:00 pm Via Zoom

Presented by various faculty

This introductory class will provide a beginning understanding of Gestalt Therapy and practice. You will learn about Gestalt theory, methods and techniques, and about what is at the heart of our creative, experiential therapy.

In addition, we'll answer your questions about  our training programs in Gestalt therapy. This workshop is particularly useful for those considering entering our training programs. 

In this class you will:

• Obtain a beginning understanding of Gestalt theory and practice.

• See a video of a gestalt therapy session.

• Witness a live demonstration of a Gestalt therapy session, followed by discussion.

• Learn about our post-graduate training programs.

• Meet one or more members of our faculty and students/alums of our training programs.    

  
  The class is free, but reservations are required. All introductions are being held online at the moment. Contact us to register.

  Email gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org or call (212) 387-9429.

Voice Attunement for Therapists

(Online Format)

Naaz Hosseini, MA, LP

Voice is central to human experience and integral, while invisible, to the therapeutic process. Voice attunement opens therapists’ ears to deepen perception, connection, and intention with clients. Through a gestalt lens, we will explore voice as a window to inner states and processes using discussion, experientials, case examples, and demonstrations. Clinicians at all levels, as well as others, can benefit from exploring the nature of voice. 

Objectives

1. Understand the connection of  voice, body tensions, and defenses.

2. Learn to use vocal cues to hear clients with greater attunement.

3. Learn to use your voice to nurture rapport, support, and co-regulation.

4. Access voice as an additional channel to inform therapeutic interventions.

Clinicians at all levels, as well as others, can benefit from exploring the nature of voice.

Saturday April 20, 2024

11 am – 2 pm (no lunch break; bring your lunch)

3 CE hours

$100

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org.

Introduction to Exploring the Relational Field Through Yoga

(In-Person Format)

Anna Hindell, LCSW-R, CIYT

Yoga is a pathway toward connecting mind, body, and breath within the present moment. This workshop offers an introduction into the exploration of yoga from a relational perspective. The workshop is intended for Gestalt therapists and therapists of other orientations, who have an interest in working with the principles of presence, awareness, and integration of mind, body and breath within therapy. We will learn from discussion, experiential format including yoga class, and lecture. We will learn the commonalities between Gestalt theory and yoga philosophy and explore how particular asanas and pranayamas can lead to a more grounded, present, and integrated state.

Objectives

1. Utilize Yoga as a tool to facilitate awareness and self-support in the body when working in the

2. relational field with clients.

3. Integrate the energetic qualities of poses (asanas) and breath exercises (pranayama) in the

4. relational field with clients in session.

5. Design and facilitate Gestalt experiments in the relational field through an experiential yoga framework with clients.

Saturday, May 11, 2024

10 am – 2 pm (short lunch break; bring your own lunch)

4 CE hours

Location: 151 West 30th Street, 3rd Floor

$150

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org.

Releasing the Inner Hostage: Dismantling Constructs and Oppressions

(Online Format)

Lorraine Stidd, LCSW

What energies are held hostage and stay bound in a person’s body and psyche?  In this program, we will explore ways to recognize inner oppressions and binding constructs that may be blended with relational attachment wounding and generational trauma. The learning will include practices for loosening the ties keeping a person from living a larger life and which interrupt the urge for fulfillment and wholeness. The program will include learning related to Attachment Theory, Trauma research and Gestalt practices and theories.  Attention will be focused throughout the program on being present in the here and now, honoring experiences of grief, nurturing compassion, and experimenting with expansion into greater freedom and aliveness.

Objectives

1. Define and understand Attachment Theory and Gestalt practices and theory including the Paradoxical Theory of Change.

2. Learn how to identify and work with relational attachment wounding and generational trauma.

3. Expand learning related to the ways in which clients inhibit and interrupt their ability to grow and heal.

Saturday, May 18, 2024

10 am – 1  pm

4 CE hours

$100

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org.

Using Gestalt Dreamwork for Psychedelic Integration

(In-Person Format)

Daniel Tisman, LCSW

Gestalt therapy has always held a unique perspective on working with dreams and dream material.  Rather than interpreting what is presented in the dream a gestalt therapist will employ a deeply embodied present-centered approach. Similar to dreams, psychedelics create a non-ordinary state of consciousness. What emerges in this psychedelic field need to be assimilated into the client’s current day to day functioning. This process is called “integration”. In this workshop we will explore the many ways that Gestalt dreamwork is a natural fit for facilitating the psychedelic integration process.

Objectives

1. Develop a deeper understanding of the principle of Gestalt dreamwork.

2. Be able to apply key concepts of Gestalt theory to clients working with psychedelics, particularly Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

Saturday, June 1, 2024,

10 am– 1 pm (no lunch break)

3 CE hours

$100

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org.

Parts Work Beyond Gestalt Therapy

(Online Format)

Laura Pearl, LCSW

While many Gestalt therapists use parts work often and skillfully, there is not very much written in the Gestalt literature about how to conceptualize parts.  In this 2-hour workshop, I will briefly discuss how concepts from Internal Family Systems, Ego States Therapy, neuroscience and the theory of structural dissociation can support our Gestalt parts work.  This workshop is open to all licensed and pre-licensure clinicians and those studying to become clinicians.

Objectives

1. Understand how Internal Family Systems, Ego States Therapy, neuroscience and the theory of structural dissociation conceptualize parts of self.

2. Consider how these theories may be applied to real cases.

3. Learn an experiential intervention used in Ego States Therapy which can help to resource clients who experienced childhood trauma.

Sunday, June 2, 2024,

1 – 3 pm

2 CE hours

$70

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org.

Implicit Bias in Mental Health: he Who, the What, the How and the Why

(In-person Format)

Nancy Andino, LCSW, CASAC

Participants will identify and experience how bias and racism impact our personal and professional beliefs, interactions and how we provide services. In this workshop we will challenge unspoken beliefs and “standard” norms that are not inclusive, effective or culturally aware/competent, from a provider, educator and personal lens. This workshop will present real lived experiences, vignettes, role playing, visualization and mindfulness experiments, that will allow participants to identify realistic coping and clinical skills, that challenge what we have personally experienced and been taught as professionals. We will identify and challenge the standard that we are all challenged to fit into.

Day 1 Objectives

1. Participants will identify how bias, skin color, and lack of cultural awareness/humility, impact mental health education and clinical/social services.

2. Participants will learn and identify their understanding of how and why cultural and skin color differences, stereotypes and beliefs systematically impact clinical care, professional relationships and interactions.

3. Participants will identify the power dynamics that show up in healing spaces, and the negative impact it can have when working with people of other cultures and/or darker skin color.

4. Participants will identify emotions and somatic experiences when challenged with real life examples reflecting racism, allyship and the impact it has on professional, clinical and personal relationships.

Day 2 Objectives

Participants will identify how and why micro-Aggressions and white fragility show up, when working with clients who are considered other, who have darker skin complexion, and/or speak a different language; through vignettes and real-life examples.

1. Participants will identify, acknowledge and face the discomfort experienced with other cultures, people of different skin color, and learn to transform the discomfort into awareness, empathy, curiosity and positive clinical interactions and interventions.

2. Participants will learn and practice engaging in uncomfortable conversations without allowing shame, guilt, judgments and comparisons to lead the conversations and interactions.

3. Participants will learn how to maximize their new cultural humility and awareness, into successful client support, engagement and interventions, by identifying what has caused the lack of interest and/or curiosity of others who may not look like them.

4. Participants will learn and identify skills on how to engage and assess clients from a cultural awareness and cultural humility lens.

Saturday, June 8, 2024, and

Sunday, June 9, 2024

10 am – 3 pm both days (with one-hour lunch break)

8 CE hours

$280

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org.

Introduction to Couples Work

(Online Format)

Marla Silverman, Ph.D.
For the therapist who wants a way to understand how to work with couples. We will cover principles and methods of working with couples, how to structure a session, what to look for and how to intervene. This workshop is both didactic and experiential. Through role play we will demonstrate and practice interventions and discuss therapeutic choices. Bring a sense of wonder and fun.

Objectives

1. Understand what causes stuck patterns of stress in couples

2. Understand how to set up a first session

3. Understand how to create safety for both members of the couple

Saturday, November 18, 2023

9 am – 12 pm

3 CE hours

$100

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestalt@gestaltnyc.org.

Women and Shame: Healing Ourselves to Wholeness

(Online Format)

Gayla Feinstein, LCSW

Once upon a time, there were places where women were admired, revered and honored; where they were viewed as powerful, valuable and wise.  Since then, we’ve been born into a long history of devaluing, diminishing and disrespecting women, a culture that has bestowed upon us the collective identity of inadequacy and unworthiness which has led to depression, body loathing and a struggle with self-acceptance and visibility.  Let us explore the nature of shame, how it lives in our bodies and influences expression and experience.  We will look at the connection of shame trauma to anger, perfectionism and intimacy as well as how it flourishes through secrecy, silence, judgment and disconnection. Through group-generated experiments, gestalt practices of awareness, movement, relational mindfulness, dialogue and touch, we will learn how to help our clients transform shame into empowerment.  Clinicians at all levels, as well as others, can benefit from exploring the nature of shame.

Objectives

1. Learn how shame is held in women’s bodies

2. Understand the influence of empathy on the shame experience

3. Help clients understand how secrecy and judgment contributes to the growth of shame

Saturday, March 16, 2024

10 am – 5 pm (with one-hour lunch break)

6 CE hours

$150

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org.

Substance Use + Gestalt = Harm Reduction: Applying the Paradoxical Theory of Change and Evidence Based Practices to Our Relationship with Substances

(Online Format)

Nina Herzog

The paradoxical theory of change underlies both Gestalt and harm reduction practice and theory.  A truly Gestalt approach to human beings’ relationships to substances is naturally aligned with the principles and practice of harm reduction.  In this workshop, we’ll learn how to apply harm reduction principles to our work with clients from the very beginning, from intake to later phases, including how to create an environment that will allow clients to be honest and promote trust in the therapeutic alliance regarding substances.  We all use various substances and always have.  How can we best support our clients’ own goals regarding substances and create a space devoid of shame and judgment that encourages open and curious exploration of these relationships, their benefits and costs?  Specific tools and practices will be presented.

Objectives

1. Learn to apply the paradoxical theory of change to our relationships with substances.

2. Learn the principles of harm reduction.

3. Learn to create an open and non-judgmental stance toward substance use that will foster trust in your clients to be honest about their substance use.

4. Learn practical tools and practices for implementing harm reduction techniques into your work

WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR NEXT YEAR

10:30 am – 4:30 pm (with one-hour lunch break)

5 CE hours

$150

To Pay By Check​, please email us at gestaltcenter@gestaltnyc.org.